7 December 2008

I'm not laying down just yet, bitches

Life is just one big long war, really. It's up to me to fight and win as many battles as I can, whether they be Olympic Games, dominating my class at SRA, or even a training run up Mount Wellington. Once I stop fighting, what's the point?

It happened once, on a Tuesday morning in December of 2005. It had been two nights since I'd failed to make the New Zealand Commonwealth Games team at Trials, and I was pretty bummed about it. I stood up halfway through a lap of a warm-down swim during my workout and looked at my coach, Richard. "I don't think I want to swim anymore." I said. I took off my cap and goggles, got out of the pool and walked out of the complex. I didn't stop to ask Richard what he thought, I just left. 200 metres down the road, I texted my friend Curtis. "I think I just quit swimming."

Obviously, I went back the following week for a pow wow with Richard, but it didn't change much. I was lying down sadly in my little battlefield, and nothing he said made me want to get up and keep fighting. I said goodbye to him, thinking I was making the best decision of my life.

Of course, if it really had been the best decision of my life, I wouldn't be up writing about it and desperately trying to hold back the tears. I miss swimming terribly, and I miss Richard. I'm lucky I've found another battle in cycling, or I really don't know what I'd do.

As it would happen, I don't think I've ever been so excited for an Olympic Games as I am about the next ones in 2012, in London, England. This is probably a combination of a lot of things, including my thorough enjoyment of watching as much as I could of the recent Beijing 2008 Games, but at the same time, really missing the environment that one can only experience in one place on earth: the Olympic Village. It's exciting to watch someone win a gold medal on TV, and watch them during their victory ceremony, but it's nothing compared to when that person walks back in the dining hall - in some cases wearing the medal and holding the bouquet of flowers, and in others with only the medal strap hanging from their tracksuit pocket, and receives a round of applause. It's really something else.

It helped that Jimmy Page performed at the closing ceremony in Beijing. I am a huge fan of Jimmy. On my "top five" list of guitarists, he rates as number two, behind Tom Morello, of course. I've been really touched three times by "Olympic moments" - first, when Hicham El Guerrouj FINALLY won the mens' 1500m race in Athens, when Kenenisa Bekele won the 5,000m in Beijing (funnily enough, El G won it in Athens, which was amazing but at the same time crushing for Bekele) and when Jimmy took the stage with Leona Lewis at the closing of Beijing.